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L. W. TRACY.

Railway Car Brake.

` Patented March 21, 1871.-

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LEwIs w. TnAoY, 0E NEW YORK, N. Y., AssreNon r ro HIMSELE AND JAMES E. GRANNISS', OF SAME PLACE.

Letters Patent No. 112,855, dated March 21, 1871.

IMPRQVEMENT mi BRAKES EoR RAILWAY-cans.

To all whom tt Imag, concern.-

Be it known that'I, LEWIS W. TRACY, of the city and State of New York, have invented and made an Improvement in Brakes for'Railway-Cars;l and the following is declared to be a full and exact description thereof.

The object of this invention lis to furnish to railway-cars a brake that is selfoperating, when the holding mechanism is relieved either/by hand or automatically in case of accident.

I make 'use of a spring, that acts to move a follower, and turn a twisted plate, and draw the brakes into contact with thewheels, and this spring is wound up. by connections I leading to the ordinary brakewheels and shafts, so that the brakeman winds his brakes out of action while the train is standing still, and,when the train is to be stopped, the brake-wheels are relieved so as to allow the brakes to, be thrown into action by the springs.

In the drawingy Figure 1 is an yinverted plan, showing my improvement as applied tothe vtrucks of a car ;A Figure 2 is a section at the line :c x; and

Figure 3 is a plan of the gearing of the pulley between the twisted blade and the brake-Wheels.

`Ihe platform or bottom of the car a is connected to the truck-frames b b by a king-bolt, as usual, and the wheels c c, axles d d, brake-blocks e. c, and brakevbeams ff, are also of any desired construction.

Upon the truck-frame, near the center thereof, I introduce a short vertical shaft in metal bearings, and

l carrying at one enda chain-wheel, g, and at the other end an arm, h.

The chains or ropesy 2 2, from the centers of the brake-beams f, pass around this wheel g in opposite directions, and their ends are attached to said wheel g, so that, by giving a partial rotation to the wheel g and its shaft, the brakes e e will be pressed firmly to the wheels.

The arm h is employed to give this movement, and for this-purpose a rope or chain, 3, leads from the arm h to a drum, 7;,'and I remark that the chains 3, coming from the arms It on the respective trucks, are led to said drum, k on opposite sides thereof, so that the two brake-connections will be actuated by simply turning the wheel or drum lt.

I make use of a twisted blade or plate, l, mounted upon centers at the ends within the frame on, and carrying at one end a small drum or pulley, t, from which a'ohain o1'. rope, 4, passes to the larger part of the drum k.

Upon the side rods of the Aframe m is mounteda cross-head, n, made to slide over the twisted blade or plate l, and, in so doing, give rotation tothis twisted plate, and apply 'powenfrom the pulley t', Vbythe band o r chain '4, to the drum k, and therefrom tothe brakes, as before described.

To actuate this brake it is necessary to move the cross-head a back and forth. For this purpose I use chains orropes, 5, passing from such cross-head around the drum o, upon the shaft of which is a coiled spring, as at p, and these ropes or chains 5 also extend beyond the cross-head n to a bar, q, from which a chain,

6, leads to a pulley, s, on the shaft ofthe drum lr, and from this drum r chains or ropes pass to the drum t of the brake-shafts u at the ends of the car.

These brake-shafts u are to be provided with handwheels, and ratchet and pawl orstop, in any usual mannen and it will now be vseen that upon. rotating the brake-wheel shaft u the rope or chain 6 will be wound upon the drum s, and the cross-head n be drawn toward the pulley Ii, and, in so doing, the brake-blockswill be relieved; but the spring 1) willbe wound up, so that, by simply throwing out vthe pawl or stop that holds the brake-shaft u, and thereby allowing the spring p to act, said spring p will draw the` cross-head n along and give a very powerful action,.

by the twisted plate l, upon thebrakes, to press them upon the wheels and stop the momentum of the car. Y

The brakes can be relieved whenthe train has been yshown in iig. 3, may be employed to lessen the speed ofthe drum and increase the number of turns given to the drum s in winding up the spring p and setting the parts ready for use.

I claim as my invention- 1. The twisted blade or -plate l, and the cross-head n, in combination with the spring p and connections to the brakes, substantially as specified.

2. The combination of the brake-shafts u, pulley s, drum r, twisted platel, cross-head n, chain-wheel g, arm h, and chains or connections between the parts, substantially as and for the purposes'set fort-h.

Dated this 5th day of December, A. D. 1870.

Witnesses:

CHAS. H. SMITH, Gao. T. PINCKNEY. 

